| Author: | | Veteran Member Registered: September, 2006 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 431
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: April 16, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $37.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Solid build, Good sharpness, contrast, and bokeh. | | Cons: | Heavy, Long focus throw (but smooth) | |
The Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 200mm f/4 lens is solidly built, like almost all the older Pentax lenses. It's a bit heavy, but you get use to it after a while and it's not really a walkaround lens anyway. Photos are sharp and color contrast is there as well. Wide open, there is some "glow" around high light areas and occasionally purple fringing under certain lighting conditions - nothing extreme and hardly noticeable. Bokeh is nice and smooth (subjective). Focusing is good, but the ring feels a bit heavier compared to my A50mm 1.7 which is smooth but quick - not too big of an issue. Overall a great prime and recommended if you can find one cheap.
My sample photos from this lens can be found in this thread.
| | | | | | | Forum Member Registered: September, 2007 Location: Brantford, Ontario, Canada Posts: 77
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 3, 2007 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Beautiful Super Takumar Colour/Contrast, stunning bokeh, razor sharp (stopped down ) built solid enough for time travel!! | | Cons: | It is pretty heavy, I'd cut off a finger to make this an 'A' | |
I bought this lens at a 'Cash Converters' ( aka pawn shop ), which is a great place to satisfy my L.B.A. , and mine is MINT, the glass is perfect.....must have come out of someones collection.
It came with both original caps, and the screw mount sun shade.....AND the original Leather case!
Its a beautiful prime for taking pics of 'things'.....tough to keep up with my 6 and 4 year old girls though ( manual focus is very smooth, but I agree with the other review....it is a long throw from infinity to 8' ) .
Super Takumars just seem to 'pop' ( colour, contrast, sharpness, warmth ) The images print almost seem 3-D? I waited a long time for my K100D and my ever growing collection of SMC Super Tak's never let me down.
Highly recommended for the right price ( I got mine for $60 Cnd and the guy threw in a Vivitar m42 135mm f2.8 !! )
I'd pay $100 in a minute again and again and again.
JS
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 364
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 1, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $45.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | All around good IQ, long focus throw, X factor | | Cons: | Slight fringing with high contrast and wide open apterture | |
Surprisingly nice lens for the money. Mine is the Super Takumar version and I'm very impressed with it on my K10D.
I personally like the longer focus throw of older lenses as it makes things so much easier to really hone in on the subject. Hyperfocusing is much easier with a longer throw as well (the lens of course includes hyperfocal markings from f4-22).
IQ is terrific for a ~$40 piece of glass, with a lens hood it is easy to avoid the fringing/glow by stopping down 2-3 stops, f8-11 are of course optimal all around, but the IQ at even f4 in full sun is marvelous if proper care is taken in composing.
Giving this a 9 for the X factor and because the lens is really worth much much more than I paid for it. Puts other photographers on tilt when I mention the price too 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamonation/2720921541/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamonation/2721747416/ (100% crop of the first)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamonation/2721748804/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamonation/2721749918/
Edit: found some other people using this lens on their Canon and Olympus bodies, I can vouch for it's ease of use on the K10D. http://flickr.com/photos/tags/supertakumar200mmf4/ | | | | | Inactive Account Registered: November, 2008 Location: Geelong, Victoria, Australia Posts: 33
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 8, 2008 | Recommended | Price: $28.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Bult like the proverbial Brick Outhouse, Sharpness | | Cons: | Weight | |
I have the Super Takumar version and to date have only used it with film bodies. (Spotmatic and Ricoh KR5-Super II fitted with a Screwmount converter.)
Results on film have been very pleasing. AN excellent lens for long range outdoor events.
I have no doubt that it will be a very good lens with my new K200D.
This link is to a photo taken with the Spotmatic body. Fuji Superia200 film. f4 setting.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/attachments/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/23...r-shadow-1.jpg | | | | | | | Site Supporter Registered: December, 2008 Location: Zetten - The Netherlands Posts: 9,050
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: May 31, 2009 | Recommended | Price: $50.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharpness, colour rendition, built quality | | Cons: | weight | |
My copy is the Super Takumar version, and I use it on my K20d. I am very much surprised by the optical quality of this lens. I find it sharp even wide open, and the colours are rich and natural. As expected from a long lens, DOF is very little, and this might cause the report of 'soft' wide open shots. However, the long focus throw makes exact focussing easy.
The built quality of this lens is old fashioned: built like a tank, all metal - and thus not very light -, and a pleasure to use (although I have no experience with tanks in this last respect...). Probably the max aperture of f/4.0 is a little slow, but SR of my K20 will quarantee tack sharp shots, even with slower shutter speeds.
All in all, I would highly recommend this lens. Optically it can't be beaten very easilly, and it's worth a multitude of it's money if you'd ask me. Buy it if you find one, and if you don't bother MF!
| | | | | Pentaxian Registered: December, 2007 Location: In the most populated state... state of denial Posts: 1,852
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 12, 2009 | Recommended
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | build, image quality | | Cons: | f/4 is a bit dark sometimes | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 8
Handling: 10
Value: 10
Camera Used: Spotmatic - K5iis
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This was my everyday tele when I used the Spotmatic. My father bought it new in 1973 with the camera
Excellent quality of construction, like all Takumars, focus is smooth as silk and rendition of tones is very clean.
Contrast and sharpness are excellent; the multicoating (SMC) prevents flaring in most conditions.
Bokeh is good but not "swirly" as it seems the fashion
If you are brave I recommend you try portraits with this one, mostly wide open outdoors.
When used with a 1.7x converter the sharpness is gone
Blades can become oily after a while, and need a technician to cure them. Lubricants from the helcoids creep into the iris.
PS, After a long hiatus I used this one in the K5-iis and was pleasantly surprised
It is still contrasty, not prone to flaring and the CA is much lower than most other legacy lenses.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: January, 2010 Posts: 96
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 3, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $54.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | sharp, easy to focus, cost | | Cons: | none | |
This Lens was awesome, It took beautiful shots. I only hand fringing on one The bellagio pic. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomshue first 2 pages or so are for all with the lens on a OLY e-620 (sorry pentax people) I love 4thirds. I like this lens so much I have 2 more on the the, the 85-210 a 28mm and 55mm
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: May, 2008 Location: Virginia Posts: 376
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: February 21, 2010 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | superb sharpness and resolution, extremely natural color, excellent build quality | | Cons: | none | |
This is the best lens I have ever used. I own the Super-Takumar version, and I use the lens with the Takumar screw-in metal hood. I find no faults with my photographs taken with this lens. I have owned and used lenses from all of the major Japanese manufacturers--Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus, and Pentax. The S-T 200/4 is my favorite.
| | | | | Senior Member Registered: April, 2010 Location: Seattle Posts: 153
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 8, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | build, cost, image quality | | Cons: | none unless you need automation | |
All Takumar lenses are exceptionally well built with strong optics. The M42 lenses stay in their adapters and work quite well. The lens is made for manual focus and has a large focus ring and a long throw for focus that works. I sold a Zeiss 200 3.5 in a C/Y mount and held onto this lens. Smaller, less expensive and a great way to get this focal length.
| | | | | Inactive Account Registered: March, 2009 Location: Coral Springs, FL Posts: 5,216
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 29, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $70.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | A Classic Tak!!! | | Cons: | A little difficult to focus | |
I have the Super Multi Coated version, and if you're at all familiar with the build and IQ of these older M42 Taks, what more can one say? It's the real deal.
I don't find this a particularly useful focal length for what I do, too long, but if I ever have to go beyond 135, this is the one to reach for. It's a bit of a challenge getting spot-on focus with it, but this just might be my lousy skills--or too many Budweisers. Perhaps the very long focus throw--which allows for more precise focusing--is a bit of a negative for moving subjects until you learn to master it.
As someone posted above, I think you can do some outstanding outdoor portrait work with this baby, or indoor if you want to go real tight.
Anyway, like all my Taks, these will get passed on to the grandkids when MY kids HAVE kids!
One sample of my 200:
(Non working link removed)
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2008 Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia Posts: 2,924
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 20, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Good quality affordable prime, very solidly build with excellent optical properties | | Cons: | Sort of a no-man’s land focal length with film cameras, colors are a little muted, focus throw is long, minimal focusing distance is quite far (2.5m) | |
Why: High quality, affordable telephoto prime, very Pentax, and the reason I stayed with the brand. 200mm became one of my favourite focal lengths after owning this lens. A little useless on film (IMHO), but a very nice length on digital.
Build Quality: This lens is a tak through and through. Very nice butter focusing but with extra size. Very nicely build and inspires confidence. My lens have oily blades (and is the reason for the cheap price) but it doesn’t affect its use on K-mount bodies
Usability: Obviously 200mm is quite a specific use lens. My favourite use for this lens is surprisingly for landscape. I often use it when I can get a good vantage point and isolate objects far away. I’m sure some people will find use for it in street situations, but imho holding a 200mm and manual focusing at someone bound to get you noticed. Manual focusing with this lens takes some time due to the long throw. I think using the DA 50-300mm would be better in those cases as it has AF and still performs decently at this length.
Focus throw is considerably long, which allows for accurate focusing but can be good or bad depending on your demands. Size is big but not unreasonably so. One caveat though is that since it’s all-metal, it’s a little hard to use in cold weather as it loses heat faster than the Pentax K-5 can lock focus. This doesn’t keep me from using it as it is one of my to-go lenses in winter when it’s hard to shoot anything at shorter lengths.
Optical quality: Sharp lens, definitely much better than the DA50-200mm at 200mm. Resolution is also much better. Color is a little muted compared to the DA zoom, and to be honest even though you increase the saturation, it will not get to the DA colors. The colors that results from increasing saturation is still quite nice though. Stopping down after 5.6 doesn’t seem to give it much benefit as it’s already quite good at its widest. Bokeh is decent; focusing at objects up to 5 meters away will still give you some bokeh, which is a property of the long focal length. I haven’t experienced any CA with this lens. Flare is not a problem with the super deep hood and the fact that at 200mm it’s rare for the sun to be in the frame unless you intentionally wish it to be so.
Conclusion: Don’t have money for DA* 200mm and don’t need AF? Get this lens, you won’t be disappointed.
20090226-9096 train station by endiro, on Flickr
20090728-2039 by endiro, on Flickr
20090728-2021 by endiro, on Flickr
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: March, 2009 Location: Ohio, USA/ India Posts: 478
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: June 1, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: N/A |
| Pros: | IQ | | Cons: | a bit heavy | |
Do not let the cheap asking price of this lens fool you. This is one of the most overlooked takumar (in my opinion). From my own experience I put off using this tak quite a while. Maybe the lens was too heavy to carry around? Maybe there were other telephoto AF lenses always available and prevented me from trying this out? Whatever the reason, within a year or two of buying this I put his up for sale. In order to upload a sample image in the 'for sale' thread I went out and shot extensively on my K20D and came back with fantastic pictures. Thankfully, I withdrew the lens before someone seriously committed to buying the lens. I doubt that i will let it go.
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: June, 2010 Posts: 753
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: July 15, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 6 |
| Pros: | very cheap, easy to find | | Cons: | stop down metering, long and heavy | | Sharpness: 5
Aberrations: 6
Bokeh: 6
Handling: 10
Value: 6
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For a cheap lens not a bad performer. I didn't own any other 200mm lens so i could only compare it to Pentax K 135/2.5 and M*300/4. Both lenses outperform Takumar easily in image quality, but K lens is like twice the price and M four times that expensive. Interestingly i took images of K135+2xteleconverter and they were still slightly sharper than photos from Takumar.
| | | | | Site Supporter Registered: November, 2010 Location: California Posts: 2,223
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 22, 2011 | Recommended
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Great IQ, sharp, useful, no PF, no sun, no aberrations | | Cons: | None | | Sharpness: 10
Aberrations: 10
Bokeh: 10
Handling: 9
Value: 10
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I have both, the SMC and the Super Takumar versions (I also have the Pentax K 200 f4). I love both of these two lenses for the reasons expressed above by others. I use this lens on a Kx and has replaced my 300mm f2.8 that is too heavy. The bokeh is great. No signs of CA, or PF. That is a great thing. I will post pics soon.
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SMCTakumar200mmf4-RedIbis by Palenquero, on Flickr
SMCTakumar200mmf4-GrapeLeaves1 by Palenquero, on Flickr
SMCTakumar200mmf4-abcdef3-2 by Palenquero, on Flickr
(Non working link removed)
SMCTakumar200mmf4-Blackbird by Palenquero, on Flickr
SMCTakumar200mmf4-Plumeria by Palenquero, on Flickr
SMCTakumar200mmf4-Eagle by Palenquero, on Flickr
| | | | | Veteran Member Registered: July, 2011 Location: Delaware Posts: 344
2 users found this helpful
| | Review Date: September 13, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $24.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Sharpness, price, easy to clean | | Cons: | It's a screw mount, weight, long focus throw | | Sharpness: 9
Aberrations: 9
Bokeh: 9
Handling: 8
Value: 10
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I got this lens at a thrift shop, including the case and metal lens hood. I can't say enough good things about it. Pretty cool to be able to use a 40 year old lens on a modern camera. Very sharp, good colors, good bokeh. Just a good lens.
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